Phones row rumbles on
A solution to the bitter dispute over the use of mobile phones by jockeys on racecourses may not come in time to avert a riders’ boycott at Sandown on Sunday.
Representatives of the riders – including solicitor Martin Cruddace – and the Jockey Club met on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the affair but the session failed to produce a compromise.
John Maxse, director of public relations at the Jockey Club, said yesterday: “Where we go from here is that we contact all of the jockeys this week, send all of them a letter with our new proposals and see where that takes us.
“The prospect of sorting out a resolution in time for Friday morning, the final declaration time for Sunday’s meetings, would probably not seem likely at this stage but that is not to say that our door is closed.
“Our point of view is that we have made an offer and now we must wait for the response.
“I do not know what the position is going to be (regarding Sandown). I have seen some jockeys’ names have been removed from the advance cards. But I would be surprised if there weren’t some trainers who wanted to take advantage of the opportunities open to their horses.
“I do feel that at our meeting with Martin Cruddace and the jockeys the goalposts were being moved away from what was a shooting opportunity to something that was further away.
“I would have preferred to have done this all through the Jockeys Association, who represent all of their members, rather than a group who may not represent the views of all jockeys.”
Sandown is owned by the Racecourse Holdings Trust, which is a subsidiary of the Jockey Club.
Officials at the course said they were keeping an eye on developments ahead of the declaration deadline for jockeys for Sunday’s card at 1pm on Friday, after which they will review the situation.
A statement from the Sandown executive said: “If it is reasonably likely that those horses entered at the declaration stage on Friday will have their rides filled, Sandown Park will go ahead with the meeting.
“However, the course feels it has an obligation to give, not only value for money, but the best possible raceday experience to all our customers.
“If Sandown Park does not feel that it can achieve this, a board meeting will be held after which a further statement will be issued at 3.00pm on Friday.”
The new mobile phone rules were implemented last week in a crackdown on racecourse security after a high-profile corruption court case, and the jockeys staged a series of walk-out protests, leaving the tracks during racing to use their phones.
Details of the latest offer put forward by the Jockey Club are:
:: Proposal to allow jockeys to use their own phones in a designated phone-zone.
:: Jockeys are allowed to use their phone without any restrictions up to half an hour before racing.
:: Following an announcement over the internal PA system half an hour before the first race the restrictions come into force.
:: Once restrictions are in force all mobile phones to remain switched off unless in use by the jockey in the phone-zone.
:: Following the announcement jockeys then place their own mobile phone in a cubby hole/locker which is positioned in the phone-zone.
:: The phone-zone itself is in the weighing room area, just outside the changing room.
:: To check for messages or make a call the jockey goes to the phone-zone and collects his phone.
:: Jockeys are permitted to check their phones for messages but jockeys should not receive incoming calls.
:: Jockeys are permitted to make calls from the zone using their own phones (with no need to request permission). To do this a rider should register when and to whom he is making the call in the log book.
:: Once restrictions are in place outward text messaging is not permitted.
:: Access to jockeys’ phone records during restricted hours could be requested by the Jockey Club – a spot check to corroborate the log book or check that text messages, for example, were not being sent. Random requests made of jockeys over the year.
:: Jockeys pick up their phones either on their way out or as soon as the last race is off.
Kevin Darley, vice-president of the Jockeys Association, said: “At the end of the day we’re just asking to be treated like grown-ups.
“We are licensed by the Jockey Club and I invite John Maxse to spend a week with us in the weighing room and just see how hard it is in there.
“The idea that information is coming out of the weighing room is just total tosh.
“We don’t speak to anybody, when we speak to the punters walking out to the paddock we say exactly the same to them as we are allowed to say on TV.
“At the end of the day, like I say, we are just being asked to be treated like grown-ups.
“They are quite welcome to come and see how the environment works in the weighing room – how we need our mobile phones.
“Depriving us of being able to make a call or receive a call – it’s just knocking us back 20 years.”
Darley’s weighing-room colleague Philip Robinson, who has led the jockeys’ campaign, added: “What is the point of having a mobile if it has to be turned off?
“We need to know when someone is try to get us straight away. It’s no good checking your phone an hour later, or two hours later and finding that you have missed rides, travel arrangements that you haven’t managed to get on a certain flight and you’ve turned down a good ride you could have had at the weekend.
“We work our lives sometimes three or four days or a week in advance.
“We sometimes make decisions about the following week that have to be made in 15 minute windows – and if we miss that somebody else is riding it.
“Just give us what we ask, we said ‘OK there is going to be a phone-zone, we are happy with that, do as we ask in the first place’.
“Our phone rings, we pick it out of our pocket, we go to the phone-zone where a security guard is sitting, within ear-shot if you like, and we answer the phone, take the messages and reply if need be.”
Maxse went on: “We tabled an offer yesterday but we are not as close as we would like.
“In the run up to yesterday’s meeting we hoped that the variation on what we were looking at would be sufficient to bring the jockey’s to agreement but it wasn’t.
“We are going to have to work again at that to see if we can do it.
“I know they are upset but I feel we have being giving a little bit and we want to try and meet in the middle.”
Darley hopes an agreement can be reached before any action becomes necessary.
He said: “I hope there is a compromise before Sunday. Racing’s not in a good state at the moment, there are issues that are a lot more important than this.
“Really, we should lock ourselves in a room, get a compromise that everybody is happy with, it would be done and dusted in five minutes.”
